Chinese EFL Learners'' Pragmatic and Discourse Transfer in L2 Requests

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature, patterns, conditions and constraints of Chinese EFL learners pragmatic and discourse transfer in the situated discourse of requests by comparing the different pragmatic and discursive choices between the Chinese EFL learners and the English native speakers. The study found that EFL learners transfer of pragmalinguistic and discourse strategies interacted with their sociopragmatic perceptions of the contextual variables in social interaction to varying degrees. The study, incorporating perspectives on linguistic patterns, cognitive processes and social influences, proposes a model on the dynamic and fluid interaction among structural factors and non-structural factors. A matrix of five possible transfer patterns is proposed to account for the observed variety of idiosyncrasies in the learner transfer. Efforts on explicit pragmatics instruction and systematic pragmatics strategy training in EFL classrooms are called for while respect for learners subjective choice for whose pragmatic forms to use in different interactional contexts is also advocated.

Autorentext

Dr. Citing Li receives her PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Hong Kong and M.Ed from University of Victoria. Her recent publications appear in Discourse and Communication and AJELT. Her research interests mainly include interlanguage pragmatics, language and identity, and cross- cultural communication.